


A Third Way Out

by grimdarkpixels



Category: A Way Out (Video Game)
Genre: Character Death Fix, Fix-It, Gen, Nobody Dies, also theyre a little gay for each other if you squint, listen i love leo and i root for him a lot but vincent has more reasons to live imo, long story short both endings fuck me up a lot, so consider this self-indulgence, thats. also self-indulgent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-19
Updated: 2018-05-19
Packaged: 2019-05-08 23:18:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,224
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14704557
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/grimdarkpixels/pseuds/grimdarkpixels
Summary: Vincent watches Leo’s face fall, his eyes slide closed and his body slump over, as if to say ‘Get it over with. Kill me. This is the only outcome and we both know it.’The only outcome. This is the only outcome. Only outcome.......But it doesn’t have to be,Vincent thinks.





	A Third Way Out

Leo doesn't know how he mustered the strength to push Vincent out the window, but the next thing he knows he's crouched behind a shed with glass stuck in his side. Deep down, he knows he's a goner, but Leo being Leo, he refuses to admit defeat. Not until Vincent knows what it's like to be betrayed by someone you once called your friend.

Vincent keeps his head down as he stalks across the roof, looking for the wounded convict. He can’t stop himself from feeling guilty. Even though he was just doing his job, that heavy feeling in his chest had only grown since Leo first discovered Vincent had lied to him. _No,_ he thinks. _I did what I had to. This was justified. Harvey is dead. Gary has been avenged. Leo...that convict is just the final hurdle._

Vincent almost doesn’t see Leo. Fortunately, the wounds he’s already sustained in the fight prior to this stop him from getting a secure hold on Vincent, who smacks him across the face with the butt of his gun and throws Leo’s stolen weapon down to a lower section of the rooftop.

In the middle of trying to bring each other down, they both fall down lower. The fall knocks the air out of both men, momentarily too distracted by their injuries to continue the fight. Leo’s vest suddenly feels too heavy, and he’s too desperate for revenge to care about the protection it provides. He pulls off his vest, and Vincent does the same. Even though Vincent can breathe a little easier without it, the weight on his shoulders feels like it won’t go away.

Vincent crawls toward the man still on the ground in front of him and punches him. Leo hears and feels a sickening _‘crunch’_ as the man’s fist collides with his nose and probably breaks it. The force of the punch somehow knocks Leo onto his back. The pain only makes him angrier. How could this man - the only person Leo trusted aside from his family - have done this to him? Used him, just like Harvey had? None of it feels real. Mostly because Leo doesn’t want it to be. A part of him wishes all of this was a nightmare, that he’d wake up any second and be back on the plane, and Vincent would still be his...the word ‘friend’ makes his heart sink.

But the part of Leo that’s angry overtakes that hopelessly optimistic part of him and punches the policeman straight in the side of the head. Vincent’s head collides with the ground, and he remembers his wife’s face. He remembers holding his daughter for the first time. _And the last time, if I let Leo win this,_ he thinks. He raises his fist and takes another swing at Leo, clipping him on the side of his face. Leo thinks of his family. _Linda and Alex...the only people I’ve ever truly loved. I have to get back to them. I’ll get back to them and leave this fucking country if it kills me._ He clenches his teeth and kicks Vincent in the stomach.

Hit after hit after hit, the fight felt like it went on forever, until neither man could throw another punch. Vincent’s eyes travelled to Leo’s gun, shining with rain and leaning precariously on the edge of the roof. Leo followed Vincent’s gaze and forced himself to his hands and knees. Both men crawled to the weapon as fast as they could. They both knew how this was going to end. One man would leave alive. The other in a body bag.

Leo’s previous injuries left him barely able to crawl, much less walk, to his goal. The glass from the window, plus the bullet wounds he’d gotten both from the fight to Harvey and from Vincent. He knows he's doomed the second Vincent manages to pull himself to his feet.

Vincent knows this just as well as Leo. As soon as he has a secure grip on the gun. He whirls around, finger already on the trigger, as his gaze goes immediately to Leo’s eyes.

Fuck, he shouldn’t have looked into Leo’s eyes.

Betrayed resignation.

That’s all Vincent can see in Leo’s face in this moment. And suddenly, that enormous feeling of guilt settles heavy in Vincent’s stomach. In truth, it never really left. And it grows so much heavier as Vincent watches Leo’s face fall, his eyes slide closed and his body slump over, as if to say ‘Get it over with. Kill me. This is the only outcome and we both know it.’

The only outcome. This is the only outcome. Only outcome....

 _...But it doesn’t have to be,_ Vincent thinks.

Instead of the gunshot Leo expects to hear, Vincent screams - a horrible, anguished sound - and throws the gun off the building with all his remaining strength. He collapses to his hands and knees, breathing heavily.

The rain is the only thing filling the silence for a long while. Leo is too stunned to move. Part of him wants to keep attacking Vincent. Push him off the building, even. Most of him just wants to cry.

He can’t stop picturing Linda, for some reason.

The sound of thunder crashes in the distance.

“Go,” Vincent pants. Barely coherent.

“What?”

“Go, Leo!” Vincent growls, his head snapping up to look Leo in the eyes again. Had Leo not known any better, he’d think Vincent was crying. His face was torn between furious and tormented, and his voice quavered. The rain made it too hard to tell.

Vincent’s face shifted to what Leo could only describe as heartbreak.

“Just fucking go.”

“...Why?” Leo wonders. Mostly to himself, but also to Vincent. The cop just chuckles. It comes out more like a joyless exhale.

“You don’t need ‘why’. Please just go. Before I change my mind. Before anyone else figures out we came up here. Go back to your family. I’ll tell them I lost you.”

Leo feels conflicted. He so, so badly wants and doesn’t want to believe him at the same time. He wants to demand an answer, he still wants to kill him, he wants to hug him, he wants to…

God, he's so tired. For once in the convict’s life, he decides to go with his heart.

“You’re a fucking idiot, Vincent,” Leo laughs. He brings himself to his feet and stumbles away to the building’s fire escape. He looks up one more time at Vincent, then tears his eyes away and begins his descent. His stomach lurches, and he can’t tell whether it's the vertigo or the sudden realisation that he might never see Vincent again that causes it.

As Leo disappears from view, Vincent feels something in his chest. Not guilt, persay, but something else. He can’t identify it. For some reason, the feeling reminds him of Carol. He kneels there in the rain for God-knows-how-long until a flashlight shines over him. He hears some of his co-workers shouting down to him.

“Vincent! Did you catch the guy?”

His eyes wander back over to the fire escape. He realises that he'll probably never see Leo again, and if he does, he’ll have to arrest him. His heart aches. Just barely past the lump in his throat, he gets the words to his fellow officers:

“No. He got away.”

**Author's Note:**

> hey! the canon endings make me sad. so i wrote a different one. its probably bad. i dont care. im crying. goodnight
> 
> edit: in case anyone was wondering the title refers to the fact that there are two canon endings depending on who lives. idk if anyone missed that or cared about it but like. yeah,,


End file.
